Review: The Cold Room - Exciting Dark Thriller!

The Cold Room

By J. T. Ellison

MIRA Books

ISBN: 9780778327141

401 Pages

The ending Author's notes by J. T. Ellison regarding her book, The Cold Room, intrigued me. Many readers will find the book "dark" and into an almost taboo subject; it was a welcome addition for me to read her thoughts as she wrote the book, realizing from her research that the issue was far from uncommon--that those who use narcotics as part of their assaults were often mimicking their baser desires.

For necrophilia...

Add that to how and who was committing the horrendous murders, and you have one of the most compelling novels you may have read for quite some time. Fortunately, with the darkness, Ellison's main characters are an exciting team. Think "Closer" but have the couple working side-by-side on a major serial killer case.

Dr. John Baldwin, head of the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit had been involved much earlier than Taylor Jackson. They called the killer, The Butcher, as he murder women in Italy, and then, later, in England. When similar, but not quite the same MO was used by a man in Nashville, where Jackson worked for Metro police, they quickly started comparing notes.

The Butcher had first starved the women to death, but had grown impatient and had started to strangle them...He would leave a picture of some piece of famous art with her body.

But the man who was soon called The Conductor, was much more dramatic, setting the stage with classical music and actually posting the bodies to match works by Picasso!

Taylor Jackson is one hot investigator! Though recently demoted and her previous team scattered, she quickly latches on to the case and is moving ahead, even while a new boss wants her to kowtow to his personal management style and she has a new partner about whom she knows little and has had no opportunity to build trust and an awareness of what skills she could come to depend on.

Her meticulous approach, however, soon has other cases tied to The Conductor and she is able to add much to Baldwin's profile development.

And then the pressure is on, because the latest victim is related to a member of the Metro administrative staff and Jackson has promised her friend that she will find the young girl!

Add on to all of that the fact that Taylor Jackson has her own stalker, called The Pretender, and an officer from England falling for her and you have one complex, twisted book that forces you to marvel at the main character's ability to keep going to solve the case. What an exciting book!

If you love psychological thrillers, and don't mind delving into a perhaps new and dark area for you, then you won't want to miss The Cold Room by J. T. Ellison... Me, I'll be ordering her three other books and adding her to my Trackle List for new books! You?

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G. A. Bixler